CLEVELAND, OH – Every day of Dawud Sami’s seven years of incarceration were filled, in one way or another, with music.

To hear him tell it, the very act of creating raps was the thing that helped him keep his sanity and get through the overwhelming experience of being in prison. And once he was released from prison, he knew that he wanted to show the world a new man – a man whose lyrics and rhymes could inspire others to pick themselves up after life had knocked them down. And so the rapper GP was born.

“That’s how I came up with the Life After 7 Project,” he said. “It’s a series of volumes of music that I’m going to release year after year, and they’ll all revolve around the idea of life after death. Some of it will be songs reenacting times from being incarcerated for those seven years. Some of it will be about what transpired prior to those seven years to get me to that spot. But all of it will deal with what’s going on after those seven years – my own personal life after death. Ultimately, this series of volumes will help people move on from situations that seem unbearable and feel like there are no options and no way out.”

GP said he knows that a struggle is a struggle, no matter what walk of life someone comes from. And he wants his music to nod to the fact that everyone will experience struggles at some point in their lives and that if he can pull up out of his extreme struggles, then others can do the same.

“Music, for me, changed my decision making,” GP said. “I know my music can do the same thing for other people. I think people can hear my music and realize that the struggles they have really aren’t that bad. And even if they are that bad, hopefully they can hear my music and know that they can live that day and take one step forward because there’s always hope. That’s what I want my music to be – I want it to be a message.”

Some of his mixtapes are already available for fans to listen to on Livemixtapes.com. The second volume of the “Life After 7” series is scheduled to drop on that website sometime before the end of the year. Like the first volume – which was hosted by DJ Kayslay – this volume will also be hosted by a notorious DJ in BWA Rhymes.

Fans who want to keep up to date on future music releases or live performances – such as his headline act on Jan. 10 in Memphis – can follow him on Instagram under the handle @officiallygp.